Woman reeling from regret after her Form 3 daughter kills grandson and then commits suicide

A Form Three student at Kapkiamo Secondary School in Baringo North committed suicide on Wednesday morning after allegedly killing her baby.

It is said Lucy Chelimo, 16, resorted to ending her life by hanging after her mother refused to take care of Chelimo’s 4-month old son as the teenager attended classes.

On Monday, January 13, Chelimo, who had left home with the baby and said she was headed to school, returned home in the evening without the child.

Upon being asked by her parents where she had taken the infant, Chelimo allegedly said she had left the baby at his father’s place.

Area chief, however, visited Kapkiamo School, where Chelimo studies, and he was informed that the teenager hadn’t reported for Term One studies as she had claimed.

Upon learning police were investigating the whereabouts of her child, Chelimo allegedly tied a rope to a tree near her parents’ compound and committed suicide at 5am Wednesday.

The infant, who was found buried in a shallow grave a few meters from the homestead of Chelimo’s parents, was allegedly strangled, police say.

The bodies were taken to Kabarnet County Referral Hospital morgue.

Chelimo’s father, Charles Chelimo, said his daughter’s death devastated him, given he had committed his resources towards her education.

Charles told K24 Digital that he had already settled his daughter’s Form Three and Form Four school fees.

Chelimo’s mother, on the other hand, wept uncontrollably, stomaching blame for her daughter’s death, with neighbours saying had she [mother] agreed to take care of Chelimo’s son when she [Chelimo] was away in school, then the deaths, maybe, could have been averted.

Last year, Baringo County alone recorded 21 cases of suicide, prompting authorities to seek a lasting solution to the now-worrying trend.